Pellenes epularis

Wesolowska, Wanda & Haddad, Charles R., 2009, Jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) of the Ndumo Game Reserve, Maputaland, South Africa, African Invertebrates 50 (1), pp. 13-103 : 68-69

Pellenes epularis (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872)

Figs 132, 133

Salticus epularis : O. P.-Cambridge 1872: 329.

Pellenes epularis: Logunov et al. 1999: 122 , figs 111–130; Prószyński 2003: 112, figs 484–486, 489–491;

Wesolowska 2006 b: 246, figs 87–92; Wesolowska & van Harten 2007: 238, figs 135–138.

See Logunov et al. (1999) for description of male, and Wesolowska (2006 b) for description of female.

Redescription:

Female.

Measurements: Carapace length 2.1, width 1.5, height 0.7. Abdomen length 1.9, width 1.4. Eye field length 1.0, anterior width 1.3, posterior width 1.4.

Carapace moderately high, dark brown, with black eye field; long brown setae near eyes, short whitish hairs cover slopes of carapace; clypeus clothed in white hairs, extending in narrow line to frame lateral carapace margins. Mouthparts and sternum dark brown. Abdomen black with serrate median white streak, with white band along anterior and lateral margins, extending to submarginal patches ( Fig. 132); venter brownish grey; spinnerets dark. Legs light brown, first pair slightly darker, with numerous white scales on legs (especially on femora); leg hairs and spines dark. Epigyne with central pocket ( Fig. 133).

Material examined: 1^Crocodile Farm, 26 ° 54.426'S: 32 ° 19.185'E, broadleaf woodland, under rocks, 6.vii.2004 ( NCA 2008 /2746) .

Distribution: Widely distributed in the Palaearctic Region. In Africa known only from Namibia; recorded for the first time from South Africa.

Habitat and biology: Only a single specimen was collected from under rocks in BW. Other specimens were observed foraging in full sun on the ground surface near Odontotermes natalensis termite galleries in AS, but were not collected.

Remarks: The diversity and distribution of the genus Pellenes in Africa are very poorly known. It may be that African populations of this species, widely separated from the Palaearctic localities, belong in reality to another species, morphologically very similar to P. epularis .